Daughter of the Mountain
by AllHailTheEmpire
Summary: Ashe ran from her tribe, betrayed by those she thought would help her change Freljord. Alone, tired and hurt in both mind and spirit she stumbles into the forge of Ornn. Their meeting changes the future of Freljord into a path that no one had planned for.
1. Chapter 1

**Daughter of the Mountain**

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Freljord was not an easy place to live, the food was scarce, the people where rough and ice covered everything in sight. Most people that lived there grew up to be formidable warriors, people that lived only for violence, booze and food. No one had challenged the way the people of the Freljord lived until a young Ashe stepped in after the dead of her mother, het tribe wanted vengeance while she wanted to heal.

They didn't get her idea, they called her a traitor if it wasn't for Anivia she would be dead. It was thanks to the ancient bird that she found the bow of Avarosa. With ice in her veins now, Ashe made her way back home hoping that the ancient relic would manage to convince the people of the tribe.

Oh how wrong she had been.

"There she is!" a barbarian yelled and another arrow was fired her way. Ashe ducked and fired a shot of her own, they had been following her for an entire day. Night had already come and she was moving with nothing but the moonlight guiding her.

Her legs felt tired, she had been climbing this mountain for hours. Everything had gone wrong so fast and she couldn't find a reason why. Another arrow flew past her, this time hitting the spot right next to her feet. Ashe cursed and kept on running, she just needed to lose them and everything would be fine.

She would track down Anivia and ask her for help once more, her people would see, they needed to see if they wanted to survive.

Ashe covered her eyes for a second as a strong blizzard hit the mountain, snow blinded her and she slowed down her steps. Sadly that was all the advantage the people pursuing her needed. An arrow pierced her right shoulder making Ashe scream in pain.

The teen hit the ground hard, her blood dripping down onto the white snow. Ashe reached for her bow but a strong boot crashed down on her hand. She hissed in pain and looked up to see one of the barbarian.

She knew him.

He worked for her mother, he was one of the kindest souls she had ever met, why would he attack her.

"We finally got you, Ashe the traitor will no longer try to fool us with her sorcery and fabricated lies; Avarosa would never chose to bless you!" he screamed as he grabbed her by throat and raised her up.

Ashe struggled to breathe as her feet kicked her assailant.

"Enough of this" he said as his grip tightened and a strange blue hue covered his dark eyes.

"There can be no body" he said to no one in particular as he dragged her and the bow to a giant canyon on the middle of the mountain. Ashe bit down on his hand hoping that he would let her go, but he resisted the pain. It was as if he didn't even feel it.

The barbarian raised her once more, her feet didn't touch the ground and Ashe immediately panicked. With pleading eyes she tried to plead, but his face was set on stone, with no emotion he secured the bow on her belt. He didn't warn her when he dropped her, Ashe screamed as she fell. She closed her eyes and prayed.

Prayed for a quick end.

But the gods did not heed her prayers, she slammed against the side of the canyon hard, rocks and dead trees cutting into her skin. She tried to grab the rocks with her good arm but she was going to fast she only managed to break a few of her fingers. Her descent was stopped by a large trunk that was growing on the side of the canyon she slammed against hard, knocking the wind out of her and shattering a few of her ribs it but as if by miracle she stayed on it.

Ashe spat blood out of her mouth and tried to remain awake, her arms where useless now she realized with horror. She tried to move but the pain wouldn't let her. Her eyes where blurry, her breath was labored and Ashe knew that her time had come.

With teary eyes she pushed herself to a sitting position.

"M… mother…." Ashe whispered into the cool air.

"I'm… not like you… I never was" Ashe stood up shakily and looked around. The tree had stopped her fall, but she still was in the middle of canyon, alone and with no way out other than down.

Ashe shivered as she looked down.

A black abyss stared back at her, with no end on sight, around her nothing but rocks and darkness. Ashe whimpered in pain as she brought her knees closer to her face. The pain was unbearable she could hardly move.

Ashe felt the mountain shook and the canyon was briefly illuminated by a red light coming from bellow her. It looked like a cave and the tired Ashe realized it was the only hope she had of surviving. She stood up on shaky legs and tried to figure out how she was going to jump down to the cave without the use of her arms.

Her left hand was broken and her right arm had an arrow lodged into it, she was bleeding out and fast. She moved her left arm and gritted her teeth. Her hand was broken but the rest of her arm was not, it was the only hope she had.

With great caution she started place her feet on the rocks below the trunk of the tree, with small steps at a time she started to get close to the cave. Ashe gritted her teeth as rock carved itself into her arm, but pain was irrelevant right now, she needed to live.

With great effort she reached the entrance of the cave collapsing once she reached the entrance. The entrance of the cave was warmer than outside and she heard the faint sound of something echoing inside.

A few moments passed before the mountain shook again and the orange glow of fire illuminated the cave once more, this time Ashe saw carvings on the wall and not far ahead of her, stairs.

Civilization.

Filled with hope Ashe stumbled to the stairs and started her descent, her strength was starting to fade and with each step more blood dripped to the ground.

Ashe reached the bottom of the stairs and entered a massive room, covered in artifacts of all kind. The artifacts where ancient and they ranged from weapons to tools but the one thing that they all had in common was the thin layer of dust that covered them.

Ashe shook her head and continued further down the cave, the echo was now a thunderous noise that was all too familiar to her, someone was forging weapons. The sound came from a chamber illuminated by the raging fire that it held, the closer Ashe got to it the hotter the air around her became. When she reached the entrance the heat became too much for her.

She couldn't give another step, her skin felt as if it was going to melt, but she could barely make out the figure of a large person with a giant hammer inside.

Desperate Ashe tried to scream only to be cut off by bloody gurgles coming out of her mouth, Ashe spat on the ground and fell to her knees. She was so close, she would not let this be her end!

"HELP!" she managed to scream at the top of her lungs and the hammering stopped. The air around her became cooler and the figure started to approach her.

Relief soon turned to dread as the humanoid shape became more and more monstrous as it got closer to her. Giant horns and red fur appeared from the smoke of the mountain and a large huff of air cleared the smoke around him.

The creature glared down at the human and growled.

 **"My work is important girl, how dare you interrupt me?"** he said in a booming voice. Ashe could only look up with pleading eyes and hope that the monster would make her death quick.


	2. Chapter 2

**Daughter of the mountain**

 **Chapter 2**

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Ornn felt something akin to annoyance as he heard a shout behind him, with an annoyed sigh he placed his hammer down onto the metal work bench he had made for himself. The demigod turned around and was met with a very peculiar sight. A small human laid there kneeling before him, her blood dirting his floor.

She stared at him in a mix of awe and horror, how long had it been since he last saw one of these frail, boring creatures? He remembered that he fought Volibear near his mountain once and that there might have been some humans involved, but in all honesty he didn't have time to look out for worms.

"My work is important girl, how dare you interrupt me?" Ornn said displeased at the invader, but the small creature didn't answer straight away, it made a couple of coughing sound and more blood came from her mouth. Her white hair was now sticking to her mouth, tainted with the blood. Ornn was reminded of how Volibear looked after a fight and his frown deepened even more.

"Please… help" was all the creature managed to whimper out. Ornn would have been content in watching her life drip from her, one drop of blood at a time. He after all had time to spare and this creature reminded him of Volibear which was a sin on his eyes. But he simply couldn't do it, it was just a small and broken human.

Like the ones he couldn't save all that time ago.

With a small sigh he moved forward and scooped the small thing on his giant palm, Ashe whimpered as she felt the warmth that radiated from his hand but thanked the gods above that he might help her out. Ornn said nothing a he walked deeper into the mountain that he called his home, he remembered that his followers had used a place for storing magical items, he just couldn't remember right now.

Ornn walked with all the time but Ashe on the hand was dying, she tried to speak but she just didn't have the strength, all she could do was pray that the creature found whatever he thought would help her.

Ornn finally locate the place and searched for a small red potion, he only had two at the moment but it would do just fine "Here drink this"

Ornn instructed but Ashe could no longer hear him, she was fading out of consciousness. Ornn let out an annoyed huff and without asking for permission he showed down the girls throat the red liquid.

Ashe felt herself be brought back to life and the myriad of coughing that followed prompted Ornn to remove the potion from her mouth "That didn't heal you fully it just stopped you from dying" Ornn commented as he set down another potion next to her. Ashe reached for it with her broken hand tried her best to grasp it.

Ornn looked at her with a neutral expression, there was no pity in his eyes, nor was there hatred. She was there and he also happened to be in the same room, simple as that. Ashe managed to wrap some of the fingers that's till responded around the potion and moved it towards her mouth, the pain was immense but she powered through it, tears flowed freely form her eyes but at the monet she didn't care how people perceived her.

She just wanted to survive.

As she finished downing the drink she let it fall to her side, she felt like dead was still at her door, but she could fight it now. Ornn nodded at her "That should be enough, you can walk back to your tribe now and tell no one that you got here"

Ashe shook her head "I can't go back"

Ornn rolled his eyes annoyed at her "You have to legs, you can walk, you can leave"

"I can't go back they're still searching for me"

"Not my problem really"

"I need to find Anivia, she's the only one who can help me" Ashe said distractedly and reached for the bow of Avarosa, the only object that brought her a semblance of hope for the future. Ornn looked at the action and fell into a silence when he recognized the weapon.

"Anivia gave you that?"

Ashe shook her head "She guided me to it, said that I needed to prove that i was worthy of using it first, I thought I did, guess that really wasn't true" Ashe said with a quiet voice. Orn on his end scoffed "Prove yourself to a weapon? Now that's something Anivia would say"

Ornn exited the room and motioned Ashe to follow, the broken girl stood up with great effort and did her best to keep up with the giant but she was too tired and he was too big for her to follow. She started to fall behind only the outline of his shadow making sure she was still going to the right place.

Ashe shivered as she felt the chilly winds from outside of the mountain once more, Ornn was working around with a large horn, it doubled Ashe in size but it still looked small in the hand of the giant of the mountain "Anivia gave me this in case of an emergency" Ornn commented as he placed the horn near his lips.

"To me this is an emergency, I hate having to take care of other people's problems and you're Anivia's problem" Ornn commented before the deafening sound of the horn echoed into the winds of the Freljord. Ornn placed the horn on the ground and awaited a response.

At first there was nothing but then a giant screech, made Ashe cover her ears.

Ornn nodded and waited at the edge of the clifft, for what felt like an eternity to Ashe no sound except the winds filled the air. But little by little she heard a faint sound of wings on the distance, growing stronger by the second. There was silence for a second before the giant form of Anivia appeared before them, she perched herself at the edge of the mountain and stared at Ornn up and down "It's been a long time since we have last seen each other brother, but you could have picked a better time to call me, I have a very important issue right now"

"I wouldn't have called you if it wasn't one hundred percent necessary and you know it Anivia, your problems have reached me and there's no way I can ignore it"

Ornn gestured back towards Ashe who stepped forward, tears falling down her cheeks and sadness on her heart "Anivia, I'm sorry… I failed you "

"Ashe…" Anivia said surprised and then with a flap of her wings she made her way towards her, Ashe lowered her gaze and avoided looking at her "I tried to make them see but my people didn't want to listen to me, they turned on me, hunted em down like a wild animal… I do not deserve this bow" Ashe said.

Anivia shook her head "Oh Ashe something far bigger is at play here other than your people, it wasn't your fault in any shape, but rather the machinations of a witch that I thought was unaware of you, but it seems that I was mistaken"

Anivia then turned to look at Ornn "Fate has saved you Ashe, you're lucky that my own brother was here to help you, if not I fear that the fate of the Freljord would have been much more darker than expected"

Ashe felt a smile creep its way into her lips, she was not at fault, that lifted a giant weight off her shoulders. Anivia then turned to look at Ornn and tilted her head towards the side. Ornn growled and made his way towards his sister, they spent a couple of second talking (well Anivia doing most of the chatter) but the Ornn suddenly shook his head and walked away "No, Anivia I won't do such a thing"

"Ornn the fate of the Freljord…"

"Why should I care about what happens outside? The mountain will remain, the wind, the animals and water as well" Ornn said as he moved deeper into the mountain, Anivia placed an ice wall in front of him to stop him, but Ornn simply headbutted it destroying it into a million pieces.

"Ornn please! If you can't do it out of love for your sister do it for the hatred of your brother" Anivia sadi and Ornn stopped, Ashe remained on the middle wondering what this two powerful beings where arguing about. Ornn the forge God, a myth that she thought only existed to entertain the kids. And yet here he was, fighting with Anivia.

"What do you mean Anivia?"

"Volibear is working with the witch that threatens all of Freljord, his goal is to gain enough power to gather an army of his followers and storm the world with his wrath and bloodlust. I don't need to tell you where he will go first one he gains enough power"

Ornn let out flames out of his nose, a clear sign of exasperation, but Volibear was too much of an issue to be ignored "Fine, I'll make arrangements, you explain the situation to the girl" Ornn said as he disappeared inside the mountain leaving Ashe alone with Anivia. The ancient bird turned to Ashe and said with calm voice.

"My brother Ornn will take care of you for as long as needed, you will live in the mountain from now on, I need to track down the witch in order to help you so be ready for as soon as I need your strength and power I will call upon you, here you will be safe, farewell for now child I can't stay long I need to attend to other pressing matters" Anivia said quickly before she disappeared into the stormy sky.

"Wait!" Ashe yelled but the only answer she received was the winds howling.

Ashe walked back inside the cave and kneeled, she tried hard to control her emotions but soon another wave of tears and sobs erupted from her.

"Mother… I'm truly alone now"

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 **A/N: Sorry for the short chapter still trying to figure out how to write the main characters correctly. I hope you liked this chapter!**


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